And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also
is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years (Gen. 6:3).
WELL-MEANT OFFER ARGUMENT:
Others say that the Holy Spirit, in the
passage, is said to have been “wrestling with sinners”—striving (or trying His
very best) to save as many of these wicked pre-diluvians as possible, but that
He failed in His strivings. They resisted Him.
This text is also cited by some to teach a gracious restraint of sin in the hearts of the unregenerate, by the Holy Spirit. For example, Louis Berkhof comments on this passage thus: “[The] Holy Spirit resisted the ungodliness and perversity of those generations that lived before the flood. He sought to check their ungodliness and lead them to repentance … But the Spirit strove in vain; sin increased rapidly” (The Three Points: In All Parts Reformed).
(I)
Rev. Gise Van
Baren
[Source:
Covenant Reformed
Fellowship News, vol. 1, nos. 5-6]
It is something quite amazing how various texts in
God’s Word can be twisted to mean something quite different from what they
say—a twisting which often is in defense of some erroneous doctrine.
This is also often done with the passage in Genesis
6:3. It is quoted in support of the idea
that God wants to save all men; and that He gives them a certain time in which
to repent, after which time, if they do not repent, He destroys them.
The argument from this passage goes like this.
Because the text says that God’s Spirit shall not strive with man, there was a
time when He did strive with man. That striving with man is interpreted
to mean that the Holy Spirit was in the hearts of all men, striving with
them, restraining their sin, attempting to lead them to repentance. Because the
text says, “Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years,” it is
interpreted to mean that the striving will continue for another 120 years, i.e.,
for the period of time during which the ark would be built.
It ought to be immediately obvious to a Reformed man
that this cannot be the meaning. If the Holy Spirit within man is striving to
bring man to repentance, not only is the Spirit presented as being totally unable
to accomplish His will, but He must finally give up in despair because of the
obstinacy of man which He is singularly unable to overcome. This presents the
Spirit as weak and helpless before the mighty power of man’s sin.
The difficulty is that the text says nothing of the
kind. No one has the right to interpret the word “strive” as meaning some kind
of internal effort on the part of the Holy Spirit to bring stubborn man to
repentance. It is better to go to other parts of Scripture to find the meaning
and follow the Reformation principle: Scripture must interpret Scripture.
The word which is translated “strive” in this text
is found in two other places in Scripture. The first is in Ecclesiastes 6:10
and is translated “contend”: “Neither may he contend with him that is mightier
than he.” The idea of “strive” is, therefore, the idea of “contend,” and is a
far cry from the idea of “attempting to lead to repentance.”
The second passage is more important. It is found in
Nehemiah 9:30: “Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testified against
them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore
gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.”
The word which is translated “testified against” is
the same word as is used in Genesis 6:3 where it is translated “strive.” This “testifying
against” is said to be “by thy spirit in thy prophets.” That is, this
testifying against the wicked is done by the Holy Spirit and through the
prophets—i.e., through their preaching. The reference in these words of
Nehemiah is to the incessant rebellion of the children of Israel throughout
their history by which they constantly disobeyed God’s commandments and sinned
against Him (v. 29). The “testifying against them” was to warn them of the
consequences of their sin and to condemn their evil. These warnings and
condemnations came through the prophets who were inspired in what they said by
the Holy Spirit.
If we take these two passages into consideration in
our explanation of Genesis 6:3, it immediately becomes obvious that the word “strive”
in this passage cannot possibly be interpreted as “seeking the salvation of all
men by an internal work of the Spirit.” The days prior to the flood were days
of terrible wickedness (cf. vv. 5-7, 11-13). God testified against the wicked
and contended with them in their wickedness. But, taking the other passages
into account, it is clear that God did this through the testimony of the “prophets”
of that time who spoke the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. One such
passage is Jude 13-14, where Enoch is described as proclaiming the Word of God
that God would come in judgment upon all these wicked people. The same truth is
taught in Hebrews 11:7 where Noah is described as “condemning the world.”
So we may safely conclude that Genesis 6:3 refers to
the preaching of Enoch and Noah, which preaching God used to testify against
the wicked prior to the flood.
* *
* * *
*
We have one other part of this text to consider. I
refer to the words, “Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”
This clause is said to be important proof that the
word “strive” refers to God’s desire to save all who hear the gospel. The argument
is that God gives those who He desires to save some time to see whether they
will repent. And if, after this period of time, they show themselves unwilling
to repent, then God no longer desires to save them, but throws them into hell.
We have already shown how this interpretation does
violence to Scripture and to the God of Scripture by reducing Him to someone so
powerless that He cannot accomplish His purpose in saving, but is dependent on
man’s willingness.
But we must explain what is meant by the expression,
“Yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”
Once again, Nehemiah 9:30 will help us. The text
reads: “Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by
thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou
them into the hand of the people of the lands.”
We noticed that the words “testifiedst against” are
a translation of the same word as the word “strive” in Genesis 6:3. But here,
interestingly enough, this testifying against the wicked is connected with God’s
forbearance: “… didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them …” God’s forbearance is God’s attitude towards
the wicked, never postponing judgment to give the wicked a chance of being
saved, but rather delaying judgment that all the elect may be saved.
In this world of sin in which we live, the question
sometimes arises, Why does not God come in judgment upon this wicked world? The
answer to that question is: God cannot come yet in judgment because there are
elect in the world who must be born and saved before judgment can come. This is
the clear teaching, e.g., of II Peter 3:9.
When the last elect is born and saved, then God
comes in His fury and wrath against all the workers of iniquity. But, for the
sake of the elect, He bears the wickedness of the world and does not
immediately destroy them. So it was in they days before the flood. For the sake
of the elect, an ark had to be built in order that the church might be saved.
That task took 120 years. And so God waited 120 years while the ark was building,
bearing the wickedness of an earth which was filled with violence, in order
that when the judgment of the flood came, the elect church of God could be
saved.
In the meantime, i.e., during the 120 years, God
testified against the wicked by His Word which He caused to be preached by
Enoch and Noah. But even that testimony would come to an end. “My spirit shall
not always strive with man.” “I will not always contend with man in his sin.” “I
will not always testify against their wickedness.” The flood would come when God was ready to
destroy the world.
The question might be asked, Why does God continue His
witness while waiting for that time when He can save the elect?
The answer to that question is not hard to find. God
continues His witness to the wicked so that they may be completely without
excuse. They have repeatedly heard the witness of God against them and their
sin. They have no excuse for their wickedness and unbelief. When the flood comes
to destroy them, they are justly destroyed. And when, at the end of the world,
they are judged for their wickedness before the great white throne, they have
no excuse for their wickedness. They heard God’s own testimony. They would not
believe. They have brought upon them God’s own judgment.
------------------------------------------------------------
(II)
Prof.
Herman C. Hanko
[Source: Common Grace Considered
(2019 edition), pp. 209-212]
This
text is found in the context of the apostasy, that took place, from the
covenant line of the seed of the woman, and the consequent terrible wickedness
that was found in the pre-deluvian world. It is recorded in Scripture as the
introduction to God’s announcement of His judgment on a world that had filled
the cup of iniquity. This word, therefore, paved the way for God’s instructions
to Noah, who “found grace in the eyes of the Lord”
(Gen. 6:8), to build the ark.
If
this text is to be quoted in favor of an “inward restraint of sin by the Holy
Spirit in the hearts of the unregenerate,” then the meaning of the text is
this: For a long time, perhaps nearly a millennium and a half, the Holy Spirit
had struggled, in the hearts of those
who belonged to the line of Cain, to keep these wicked people from being as
sinful as they were determined to be, but that, at last, the Holy Spirit,
apparently failing in His efforts to restrain
sin, withdrew from the wicked and God
ceased from restraining their sin by His
Spirit. It is an argument based on a strange assumption that the Holy
Spirit had worked mightily for over a thousand years to restrain sin but had
failed, and it is deduced from a negative statement (“My Spirit shall not always strive with man”) and
made to mean a positive doctrine of an inner work of the Spirit in the
reprobate that changes their nature for good, but does not save.
But,
of course, the text does not say anything even faintly resembling such an idea;
and, in fact, the picture drawn for us in Genesis 4 and 5 is quite
different. One is hard-pressed to find any
restraint of sin of any kind in the hearts of these wicked people. One finds,
rather, a frightening development of
sin that, within 1650 years or so, almost destroyed the church and made the
world ripe for judgment.
Cain
was guilty of fratricide, and the blood-soaked ground under Abel’s body cried
out for vengeance (Gen. 4:8-12). When God pronounced the curse upon Cain (Gen.
4:11), Cain, and subsequently, his descendants, moved away from the church,
where the seed of the woman “began to call upon the name of the Lord,” (Gen. 4:26) to find their way in
the world apart from the church.
Lamech,
from the line of Cain, was apparently the world’s first bigamist, and defied
God’s creation ordinance for marriage. He also took it upon himself, not only
to murder one of the people of God, but to compose a song to celebrate his
dastardly deed (Gen. 4:23-24); and he dared God to punish him for committing
such a terrible sin: “If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy
and seven fold” (Gen. 4:24).
In
chapter 6, we have that chilling description of the dreadful sins that took
place, when those of the line of Seth sought cooperation with those of the line
of Cain:
… the sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose … There
were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of
God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same
became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:2-5).
But the sin to which we are pointed in these chapters of Genesis, which was the worst of all, was the sin of the persecution of the church. It began early with the murder of Abel. It continued with Enoch who was taken to heaven, because he was being hunted by wicked men (Gen. 5:24, Jude 14-15, Heb. 11:5-6 [Note in Hebrews 11:5 that the text says that “he was not found,” indicating that he was being hunted, but was delivered by a miracle of translation to heaven without dying]). The entire church, in a world that must have numbered millions, was reduced to eight people at the time the flood came. If the flood had not come when it did, no church would have survived.
All
of these things do not speak of an “inward restraint of sin by the Holy
Spirit,” but just the opposite: a violent
and rapid development of sin, so that the world became ripe for judgment in
a relatively short time.
But
we must still explain what the text does
mean.
The
text can only refer to the preaching of
the gospel that took place prior to the flood. This is evident, first, from
the fact that the preaching of the gospel is always accompanied by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit never works independently of the
preaching, but He always works where the preaching takes place—whether that
work is to save or harden. Second, we know that, prior to the flood, God had
His preachers in the world. Two are mentioned in Scripture: Enoch, who
prophesied of these (wicked men who ‘went
the way of Cain’—HH), saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his
saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly
among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of
all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him (Jude 11,
14-15).
Noah
also is said, in II Peter 2:5, to be a “preacher of righteousness.”
It is clear from the description of Enoch’s preaching, found in Jude 15, and of
Noah’s preaching, found in II Peter 2:5, that the preaching contained all
the elements of true preaching: the command to repent from sin, the warning of
certain judgment on unbelievers and the call to believe in Christ and the
gospel of salvation in Christ. That Noah preached salvation in Christ who was
to come, is evident from the fact that Noah was a preacher of righteousness,
as Hebrews 11:7 makes clear. Both Noah and Enoch not only preached the
gospel that righteousness could only be found in the Seed of the woman who was
to come, but both also called to repentance and warned against coming judgment.
For this they were persecuted.
This
powerful preaching was mocked, opposed and hated. And so God said He would
withdraw this preaching and its accompanying work of the Spirit—as He always
does to apostate churches, and as He did to wicked Israel (Amos 7:11-12). In
churches where the gospel is no longer preached, the Spirit is withdrawn. The
work of the Spirit is no longer present. The “striving,” of which the text
speaks, is, therefore, the preaching of
repentance from sin, which the preachers of the pre-deluvian world
proclaimed, and that truth of the gospel impressed on the consciences of men by
the Spirit. It all is a warning to today’s rapidly departing churches that the
Spirit is no more present where the gospel is perverted. And the sound of the
gospel is no longer heard in nations in which these apostate churches are
found, and which have rejected the gospel.
If
you ask: What was the work of the Spirit
that accompanied the preaching?, the answer is that the Spirit convicts of
sin, reproving sin in the consciousness of the wicked and impressing upon the
wicked the certainty of judgment (John 16:8-11). When God takes His Spirit from
a church, or nation, or person, such are no longer even warned of their sin and impending judgment and the consciousness of
their sin is lost. This is dreadful.
------------------------------------------------------------
(III)
Robert
C. Harbach (1914-1996)
The
proponents of the theory of “common grace” think they find their hypothesis all
through this passage. Dr. Geerhardus Vos, professor of Biblical Theology,
Princeton Theological Seminary, writes this:
The narrative proceeds in … the rapid
development of sin in the line of Cain. In connection with this it describes the working of common grace in the gift of
invention for the advance of civilization in the sphere of nature. It shows
further that these gifts of grace were abused by the Cainites and made
subservient to the process of evil in the world. We have here a story of rapid degeneration, so guided by God as to
bring out the inherent tendency of sin to lead to ruin, and its power to corrupt and debase whatever of good might still
develop. So far as this circle of humanity is concerned, the facts bear out
the interpretation above put upon the period (ital., RCH).
What
Dr. Vos means is that there is a common grace shown to men in the gifts of
science, invention, labor, industry, the arts, agriculture, and what is
produced from them in modern conveniences and the general advance of
civilization. However, this “common grace” does not get much chance to develop
and do men much good, because sin develops faster, and because men prostitute
the use of all these good gifts in the service of sin and their own lusts. Men,
therefore, neglect, refuse, resist this “common grace.” Further, their sin has
a tendency to ruin everything, that
is, sin causes men to drift in the
direction of absolute depravity, and may
proceed to his utter destruction in the sink of iniquity. In this way, sin has
a power to gradually corrupt the good of “common grace,” thus rendering it of
none effect, and making man the number one candidate for final judgment. The
implication is that “common grace” would succeed in its purpose to make men and
the world better with that pinch of the salt of humankindness that is in him, if men would only let it. But men fail
in this regard; they pinch out that pinch of humankindness. Then God in
judgment sovereignly guides their sin to corrupt even their best works, so that
there can no longer be found even a spark, or a pinch, of “common good”
anywhere. Also it is presumed that the facts of scripture bear out this “common
grace” interpretation!
However,
the italicized words in the quotation above show a contradiction. They speak of
a “common grace” in the gifts of
invention, etc., and imply a “common grace” in men’s use of those inventions and gifts, in his works of culture,
business, sociology, education, [and] all the marvels and comforts of
civilization. Nevertheless, all the sin of men corrupts and debases whatever
good they might do. This means that their most glittering accomplishments are
only glittering sins! Even the so-called common grace acts of men are polluted
by their sin, and are therefore evil and condemnable. In one breath we have the
assertion, not proof, of “common grace” and then it is overthrown! The
conclusion, then, is that there is and can be no such thing as a grace that is
common, no more than there can be works of men that are good. “Common grace”
adherents usually contradict themselves and upset their own theory. On another
page this same professor says, “Even the good, kept alive, was not enabled to
force back the evil. Nothing is said about any influence proceeding from the
Sethites upon the Cainites. While the power of redemption remained stationary,
the power of sin waxed strong, and became ready to attack the good that still
existed” (Old and New Testament Bible
Theology, chap. V, paragraphs 2, 4). We most heartily agree with this last
statement, pointing out that, it being true, there can be no “common grace” nor
any such thing as a restraint of sin, as verse 5 makes so clear. If there was a
universal grace restraining sin, how could it be said “that the wickedness of
man was (then so) great in the earth”?
So,
according to the theory under consideration, God’s Spirit restrains sin by a
general non-saving operation in the heart of all men. This restraining
influence of the Spirit temporarily improves men, it keeps men from becoming as
bad as they otherwise would be from their naturally (totally?) depraved nature.
This restraint of the Spirit of Jehovah suggests a resistance on the part of
man against it. There is a back-and-forth struggle between the Spirit and men,
not that men ever overcome God, but after a time, in which God finally becomes
exasperated because men do not benefit by the restraining operation, judgment
is the only course open to God. So He withdraws the restraining influence of
His Spirit and destroys man. This is the “common grace” view of this passage,
and, as the careful reader can see, dualism
is involved in this view.
The
Arminian interpretation carries out this line of thought to its logical
conclusion, and teaches that in fallen man the divinely appointed aim of
creation of the world, namely, the glorifying of God, was disturbed by sin. For
this reason, there is a yet unrealized desire on the part of God and His people
as expressed in the Psalm of God’s glory in creation, Psalm 104, that “the
sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more” (v. 35).
God’s Spirit attempts to restrain sin, while sin, in turn, represses the sway
of God’s Spirit. His controlling influence is hampered by the wilful error of
mankind. Then God withdraws His Spirit which has all the while been present to
make man’s salvation possible. So the effort of God’s Spirit, a mere attempt,
at best, it all too often seems, fails. Man was given his chance, so the Spirit
of God brings all that unsuccessful effort to an end. The striving comes to an
end not because God’s willingness to help comes to an end, but because the
human race sinks beyond the possibility of help. This is Semi-Pelagian
philosophy.
Now
this word, “strive” (yadhon), is found in Ecclesiastes 6:10,
“… neither may he contend with him
that is mightier than he.” It is also
found in Nehemiah 9:30, “Yet many years didst Thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by Thy Spirit
in Thy prophets …” So the meaning is that God’s Spirit contends with men,
testifies against them. The word means “to act as judge in man” in the sense of
the Judge himself testifying against man. God shall not always act as Judge, but finally as Executioner! Here
we have the picture of the Spirit in man as a Sword (the Sword of the Spirit is
the Word of God, Eph. 6:17) in a scabbard. The sword will soon be unsheathed
and drawn out in capital punishment. Meanwhile the sheathed sword opposes man
at every turn he makes. God did so act in the preaching of Enoch and Noah, in
the testimony of Seth and Methuselah, in all the Old Testament prophets. He
acts as Judge now in the preaching of the Word. Cp. I Peter 3:19, 20. God
always opposes the wicked by the Word. Strive means exactly that, to
oppose by the Word.
------------------------------------------------------------
(IV)
Herman
Hoeksema (1886-1965)
(a)
The tacit and
supposed exegesis of synod is, “My Spirit shall not always check the progress
of corruption in man’s nature,” but this has no sound basis … The Spirit before
the flood had not restrained the development of sin at all; the whole race had
fast become ripe for destruction. Further, the word strive certainly does not mean the same as check or restrain … The
simple and self-evident explanation is that the Spirit had striven through the word, by the mouths
of the prediluvian saints, with the ungodly generation living before the
deluge. The result, however, had been not a check of corruption, but hardening
of the hearts and further development of sin. The strife of the Spirit would
not last forever. The end was approaching. The world would be judged and
destroyed in the flood.
(b)
According to [advocates of common
grace], this text means that God so restrains sin in the heart and mind of the
natural man that he is improved and is capable of performing much good. But
this is an impossible interpretation for the following reasons: (1.) Because,
in that case, God and His Holy Spirit would then have suffered defeat: for God
attempted to restrain sin in the heart and mind of the ungodly, but in spite of
this, wickedness developed very fast. (2.) In spite of the restraint of sin by
the Holy Spirit, the wickedness of the prediluvian world had so far developed
that they, in about sixteen hundred years, had become ripe for judgment. (3.) The
context militates against this interpretation. In verse 5 we read: “And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” How could this be, if the
Holy Spirit worked in the hearts and minds of the natural man continually? … What,
then, is the meaning of the text? What is the sense of the word “strive”? Did
God strive by an inward operation of the Holy Spirit to check the power of sin
in the heart and mind of the ungodly? Let Scripture speak. In Jude 14, 15 we
read: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,
Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment
upon all. And convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly
deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches which
ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” … How, then, did God strive with men
in the prediluvian world? The answer is: through
His Word as it was spoken by Enoch. To be sure, also through His Spirit,
but not in order to restrain sin, but to make the Word spoken by Enoch powerful
and to harden their hearts.
(c)
[Source: The
Protestant Reformed Churches in America (1947), 370-371]
14. How would synod read this text?
Synod read this passage as follows:
“And the Lord said: My Spirit shall not always restrain sin in the heart of man so as to improve him.”
15. Why is this interpretation wholly
impossible?
Because it would presuppose that until
that moment the Spirit had actually restrained the process of sin in the heart
of the wicked world, while the facts plainly contradict such a view. Wickedness
in the predeluvian world had abounded and developed with astounding rapidity,
so that, after sixteen centuries of development, the world was ripe for
judgment and its measure of iniquity was full. It is evident, therefore, that
there had been no checking of the process and progress of sin in the world.
This leaves only two possibilities: either the Spirit of God had attempted to
stem the tide of sin, but had utterly failed, which is blasphemy even to think;
or there had been no such operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart of man
as synod declares to be taught in this text. The latter is the truth.
16. Does not the context also contradict the
interpretation of synod?
It does, for in verse 5 we read: “And
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It is quite
impossible that, given an operation of the Holy Spirit upon that heart of man, every imagination arising from it could
be only and continually evil.
17. What, then is the meaning of Genesis 6:3?
“Strive” in the text has the meaning of
striving or opposing by the Word. It
is evident from Scripture that the Holy Spirit had striven with the wicked
world before the flood through the Word
of God by the predeluvian patriarchs. Thus we read in Jude 14-15: “And
Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the
Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and
to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him.
From this passage it is evident that
the Spirit did strive with the ungodly world, not by an operation of the Holy
Spirit upon the hearts of the ungodly, but by the Word of the prophets. It is also plain from this text that the
ungodly sinners contradicted the Word of God and spoke “hard speeches” against
it. And thus it is easily to be understood that over against this striving of
the Spirit the world increased in sin. The Word of God, as always, had a hardening effect. And this interpretation,
while it is in harmony with the text itself, is also in accord with the general
teaching of the Word of God that the Word is a savor of death unto death for the ungodly and that it hardens men’s hearts if by it they are
not converted to God.
------------------------------------------------------------
(V)
Homer
C. Hoeksema (1923-1989)
[If
one is to use this text to support common grace, he] should show from the text, and that,
too, in the light of Scripture, that this striving is gracious. The term grace is
not so much as mentioned. One might even argue that the very term strive, which would seem to
indicate opposition and conflict, indicates the opposite of a gracious
attitude.
------------------------------------------------------------
(VI)
Martin
Luther (1483-1546)
[Source: “Luther on Sin and the Flood: Commentary on Genesis,”
trans. John Nicholas Lenker, D. D. (Minneapolis, MN: The Luther Press, 1910),
vol. II, pp. 138-140.]
52.
I understand this passage therefore as words spoken by Lamech or Noah as a new
message to the whole world. For it was a public message proclaimed at some
public assembly. When Methuselah, Lamech and Noah saw that the world was
hastening straight to destruction by its sins, they resorted to this
proclamation: My Spirit shall no longer preach among men. That means: we teach
in vain, we admonish in vain; the world has no desire to be better.
53.
It is as if one in the present perverse times should say: We teach and make
ample effort to summon the world back to sobriety and godliness, but we are
derided, persecuted, killed, and all men, in the end, rush to destruction with
blind eyes and deaf ears; therefore we are constrained to desist. These are the
words of a soul planning appropriate action and full of anxiety, because it is
clear that the human race, at the height of its peril, cannot be healed.
54.
This exposition conforms to faith and Holy Scriptures. When the Word is
revealed from heaven, we see that some are converted, who are freed from
damnation. The remaining multitude despises it and securely indulges in
avarice, lust and other vices, as Jeremiah says (ch. 51, 9): “We should have
healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into
his own country.”
The
more diligently Moses and Aaron importuned and instructed, the more obstinate
Pharaoh became. The Jews were not made better by even the preaching of Christ
and the apostles. The same befalls us who teach in our day. What, in
consequence, are we to do? Deplore the blindness and obstinacy of men we may,
correct it we cannot. Who would rejoice in the eternal damnation of the popes
and their followers? Who would not prefer that they should embrace the Word and
recover their senses?
55.
A similar exhibition of obstinacy Methuselah, Lamech and Noah saw in their day.
Therefore there bursts from them this voice of despair: My Spirit, namely the
Word of healing truth, shall no longer bear witness among men. For inasmuch as
you refuse to embrace the Word—will not yield to healing truth—you shall perish.
These
are the words of a heart filled with anxiety after the manner that the
Scriptures say God is anxious; that is, the hearts of Noah, Lamech, Methuselah
and other holy men who are filled with love toward all. Beholding the
wickedness of men, they are troubled and pained.
56.
Such grief is really the grief of the Holy Spirit, as Paul says, “Grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption,” Eph
4, 30. This means that the Holy Spirit is grieved when we miserable men are
distracted and tormented by the wickedness of the world, that despises the Word
we preach by the Holy Spirit. Thus Lot was troubled in Sodom, and the pious
Jews in Babylon under the godless king Belshazzar; also Jeremiah, when he
preached to the ungodly Jews and exclaimed (Jer. 15, 10): “Woe is me, my
mother, that thou hast borne me.” So in Micah 7, 1: “Woe is me! for I am as the
grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat.”
------------------------------------------------------------
(VII)
More
to come! (DV)
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